Voters to decide new $81M downtown project

The Polk County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to put a $81 million project up for a referendum vote.

County officials said the 107-year-old Polk County Courthouse is too old, too small and too dangerous.

They want the taxpayers to help to fix the problem. KCCI Todd Magel reported the remedy will not be cheap with a price tag set at $81 million.

The referendum vote will be part of the Nov. 5 ballot.

Polk County Court Administrator Beth Baldwin is one of the first to admit the grand old courthouse downtown is a beautiful building inside and out and its ornate decor is not just a reminder of the past but a reminder of the building's present.

"It was built in 1906 when we had a population of 40,000 here; we are at close to half a million trying to operate out of the same building and it's not working very well," said Tom Hockensmith, chair of the Polk County Board of Supervisors.

For example, the probate courtroom on the fourth floor is also the probate judges office. They have to turn off the window air conditioning unit to be able to hear testimony. There's no air conditioning in the hallways where it was a muggy 80 degrees Monday afternoon. And defendants in criminal cases walk the same sweltering hallways as the public.

"I think the citizens of Polk County deserve a safe place to have their court hearing handled, and it isn't safe now," Baldwin said.

The criminal courts would move to what is now the old Polk County Jail just west of the courthouse. The jail has been shut down for several years.

An architect's rendering of what would become the Criminal Courts Annex shows a major transformation from the jail's red brick to a white facade and banks of new windows.

To the north, the old Wellmark Building also gets a new skin and a new name -- the Justice Center Annex. It would be home to traffic, small claims and juvenile courts.

The renovated courthouse would include restored courtrooms for civil trials. Polk County leaders hope voters think it's money well spent.

"Utilizing two existing buildings -- one that was vacant, one almost vacant -- I think they will see it as a more cost-effective approach," Hockensmith said.

The county leadership proposed a $132 million project to build a new courthouse in 2008 but that was defeated by the voters.

If this proposal passes, it would mean roughly an $11 a year tax increase for the owner of a $100,000 home in Polk County.

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